The club was closed Monday as an eighth month total reconstruction began of the Beach Club’s layout that was originally built in 1929.
Those going north on U.S. 41 will get a good look at the first phase of the project that is expected to be completed by August, but won’t reopen until perhaps Christmastime. The new course will have TifEagle greens and Celebration grass on tees, fairways and roughs. The old St. Augustine grass that was known to swallow up many golf balls in the rough and delay plenty of rounds while golfers looked for their balls in it will be gone.
The owners of the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club say “it’s going to be a totally new golf course.” “Every inch of the course is going to be dug up. There’s not going to be a single green or single tee that’s going to be exactly the way it is.”
The 9 million project was announced late last year, but had been in the works for a while. A total of $4.5 million will go toward rebuilding the golf course itself, with the other half going for such items like new golf carts with GPS, new maintenance equipment and a maintenance facility. The new course will have a par of 71 with five sets of tees, ranging from 4,900 yard to over 6,000. The new driving range will be 300 yards – the current one, when it’s not used for overflow parking, is only long enough for iron shots and has netting and poles.
The Beach Club is a core golf course with no housing, but is bordered by the two-story building that houses the pro shop and spa to the west, U.S. 41 to the east, Golf Boulevard to the south, and some housing along Crayton, Yucca roads and Banyan Boulevard to the north.
With a finite amount of space, the new layout will include a pair of “double greens.” No. 2 a drivable par 4, and No. 8, a par 3, will share a green. So will No. 15 and No. 3 (the old No. 14).
The end result, everyone hopes, is a course that every golfer can play and enjoy. With a much need upgrade!
